Walnut Creek: Assistant city manager leaving to take job as city manager in Pacifica

WALNUT CREEK -- Assistant City Manager Lorie Tinfow is leaving, likely to become city manager in Pacifica.

The Pacifica City Council will vote Monday on Tinfow's hiring.

Her last day with Walnut Creek is scheduled to be Sept. 13, according to an email Tinfow sent City Council members and city staff.

"This is an exciting opportunity for me and I'm honored to have been selected -- even so, this news is bittersweet to deliver," she said in the e-mail. "I really love Walnut Creek and I feel lucky to have worked in an organization with such accomplished, caring and dedicated employees."

Tinfow has been the assistant city manager since 2006, but had served Walnut Creek earlier as an assistant to city managers from 1996 to 2001. She also worked for the cities of Saratoga and Pleasanton.

In Walnut Creek, Tinfow was the point person for the $40 million library project, has been key in the city's economic development plans and oversees labor negotiations for the city's seven employee units.

Her resignation comes just a few months after Tinfow was one of many high-level employees called out in an independent investigation report for knowing earlier than originally thought about inappropriate conduct by a former Lesher Center employee. That former city employee, Jason Pedroza, pleaded guilty to child sex abuse charges last week.

Tinfow is the fourth city employee to leave in the wake of the Pedroza scandal. City Attorney Bryan Wenter, Assistant City Attorney Katy Wisinski and Human Resources Director Sally Rice have all resigned in the past two months.